The Next Great Beer State

Even just five years ago, finding great beer in America strictly meant targeting a few key states. California, Colorado, and Oregon were the behemoths, where IPAs flowed like falling rain. Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Wisconsin were exceptional too—synthesizing the best of both coasts in their ambitions—while North Carolina and Vermont were emerging geek markets. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you found yourself in a good portion of the deep south or great plains, you were gonna be drinking macro-beer, buddy.

That’s of course all changed of late, calling into question the historic power centers that once dominated the beerscape.

Now, even the states without a rich brewing legacy usually have a good brewery or two, while many long off-the-radar locales are booming, becoming legitimate beercation destinations. With new beer strongholds forming throughout the land, who knows if one day bearded bros in logoed t-shirts will be ignoring Vermont in favor of, say, Virginia.

Yes, we know the New Yorks and Floridas of the world are now also great, but the following eight states are places you might not have even considered visiting in order to fill your trunk with cans, bottles, and growlers.

(And if you’re wondering why your state isn’t listed, maybe I already think it’s great—or that it never will be.)

Connecticut

The disparity never made much sense. You had Connecticut, the richest state in the union, smack dab between two of the most important states—not to mention commuting distance from two of the best beer metropolises on the east coast in Boston and New York City—with a beer scene didn’t just stink, but barely existed. In the last few years, however, some truly original breweries have emerged, like Kent Falls, a farmhouse brewery some people think is “the next Hill Farmstead.” Or IPA kings The Beer’d Brewing Company. Farmhouse master Phil Markowski is now at Two Roads, right off the I-95 turnpike. There’s also Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores (OEC) in Oxford, making some of the most avant-garde barrel-aged offerings on planet earth. There’s still no single great beer city in the Nutmeg State, but if you have no issue with putting some miles on your tires, a roadtrip through CT is in order.

Georgia

It’s surely no surprise Georgia beer blew for so long. Breweries weren’t allowed to sell it to go, nor could they brew anything over 14% ABV. Thankfully, the former law has changed, and people are still working to amend the latter. And just in time, as the state has finally got its act together brewing-wise. You’d expect Atlanta to be the state’s beer hotbed, and indeed the major city has Georgia’s three best beer bars in Brick Store Pub, The Porter, and Wrecking Bar (a brewpub). But it’s actually tiny Athens where the best breweries abound. Terrapin has been there for awhile, making mostly workmen-like offerings to support their breakfast stout series (like Cinnamon Roll’d Wake-n-Bake). Creature Comforts is the state’s current superstar, only around for a couple years but already making world-class wild ales and IPAs. Then there's Savannah, one of the few places in America where you can legally drink in public. (So why not take that can of Tropicália “to go”!)

Iowa

Sometimes, one entity is such a singular force that it changes everything. Long a beer wasteland, Iowa can thankToppling Goliath’s opening in 2010 for singlehandedly changing the perception of the state's beer. Toppling Goliath doesn’t just make good beer—the Decorah brewery makes some of the most acclaimed, and certainly most coveted beer, on planet earth. (Sorry, but you will pretty much never taste their hyper-limited offerings like KBBS, Mornin’ Delight, and Assassin.) So even if Toppling Goliath was the only game in town, Iowa would still be worth considering as the next great beer state. But there’s more. Nearby in Des Moines, El Bait Shop has the most tap handles in the country with an astonishing 180. There’s also Confluence Brewing, selling a variety of styles, while Exile attempts intriguing kettle sours and Madhouse offers acclaimed imperial stouts like El Jefe, “The Boss.” If you build it they will come, indeed.

Maine

I was somewhat hesitant to include Maine. Don’t people already know this a great beer state? But it seems most folks are still exclusively devoting their New England beer travels to Massachusetts and Vermont. Portland is without question one of the finest beer cities in the country, home to top-notch beer bars like Novare Res, not to mention a massive swell of emerging breweries. Everyone knows Allagash, and they’re still kicking ass with their coolship’ed sours, but the last few years have also brought us bottled IPA champs in Maine Beer Co. and their canned counterparts in Bissell Brothers and Foundation. Further north are the farmhouse masters in Oxbow, while way the F west in Lovell, near the White Mountain National Forest, is Ebenezer’s, home to perhaps the best “reserve” bottle list in the country.

Ohio

Bitter football rivals with their neighbors to the north, Ohio, for some reason, is rarely put on equal footing with Michigan beer-wise. That should change soon, as the Buckeye state has an insane amount of great breweries that have emerged of late. In fact, when I did my “Best Beer in Every State” list in September, my head was spinning simply trying to figure out what brewery to tout from Ohio, much less what singular beer. Cleveland’s Great Lakes is the granddaddy, having made flawless, mostly old-world style offerings since 1986. Cleveland also has Fat Head’s, which was recently named GABF mid-size brewery of the year. Athen’s Jackie O’s dominates the adjunct stout game, while a phenomenal scene has recently appeared in Columbus—23 breweries in total—with the cheeky IPA masters at Hoof Hearted getting most of the notice. BrewDog’s stateside operations are even set to open in the don’t-call-us-a-college town.

Texas

Like New York and Florida, Texas had always been one of those big, bad states that wasn’t quite as good at brewing as size would dictate. But Texas beer has finally exploded in the last half-decade. Austin’s Jester King has become a household name in the industry, making classy farmhouse ales heavy on Hill County terroir. Due east there’s Live Oak, making killer cans of German-style ales and lagers for over a decade. Houston’s Karbach makes some barrel-aged booze bombs worth seeking out, while in Magnolia there’s Lone Pint, whose Yellow Rose IPA was literally my #1 beer of 2014. And the state is rife with great beer bars too, from the Banger’s in Austin (serving 30 sausages to boot) to Craft and Growler in Dallas, to the famed Hay Merchant in Houston.

Virginia

Virginia hits you with somewhat of a two-pronged beer attack. You have the D.C. commuter towns of Northern VA, which give us great beer bars (Rustico) and hazy IPA makers (Aslin), while down south in Richmond you’ll find a booming beer city. Hardywood is the town’s “old” dogs, having just celebrated five years of making decadent milk stouts like their famed Trickery and Foolery, and The Answer is Mekong impresario An Bui’s love letter to adjunct offerings (Mekong itself is often called the best beer bar in the country). The Veil has only been open since the early summer, but is already getting acclaimed as one of the best purveyors of Northeast-style IPAs. Even further south in the Virginia Beach area is a world-class beer bar in The Birch and bottle shop in Grape and Gourmet.

Washington D.C.

Finally, it’s quite possible the country’s next great beer state isn’t even a state. The D.C. scene is so new that DC Brau, only open since 2011, feels like they have been cranking out quality stuff (like On the Wings of Armageddon DIPA) for twenty years. There’s also Right Proper, making inventive sippers at two neighborhood brewpubs. Greg Engert is still the beer A-lister in town though: his Neighborhood Restaurant Group has a string of hit beer spots in the district, including Churchkey, Birch & Barley, new-ish Belgian joint The Sovereign (which recently hosted Cantillon Zwanze Day), and Bluejacket, Engert’s state-of-the-art brewpub near Nationals Park.

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